Mike Freeman

Mike Freeman covers technology for the U-T, where his coverage includes Qualcomm, San Diego's largest publicly traded company. Mike started at the U-T in 1999, covering the golf and action sports industries. Over the years, Mike has reported on commercial real estate, the housing bubble, banking and defense contractors. He also covered the Pinnfund Ponzi scheme and several real estate scams. He is one of the few journalists in the country who researches and writes a special section on executive compensation. Before joining the U-T, Mike was business editor of a daily newspaper in Bend, Ore. He graduated from Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore. with a bachelor's degree in communications.

At Qualcomm’s robotics research lab, engineer Serefin Diaz scanned a living room with a tablet computer that contained the San Diego company’s computer vision technology. The screen began to fill in with a 3-D digital reconstruction of the television, coffee table and other living room furniture. That may not seem useful. But what if computer vision technology powered a robot that did housework? It automatically would know what to avoid while vacuuming or dusting without ...

Fewer companies launched initial public stock offerings in the first quarter as the IPO market catches its breath after a blockbuster year in 2014. Ernst & Young’s Global IPO Trends report forecast 38 companies would raise $5.6 billion in U.S. IPOs when the first quarter ends March 31. That’s down 46 percent from the first quarter last year. But Ernst & Young did not see the slowdown as a sign that the IPO window was ...

San Diego’s Pulse Electronics, which last week posted another quarterly loss, is moving ahead with plans to be acquired by its top shareholder this spring. The maker of precise electronics components for networks, power supplies and wireless infrastructure said this month that it has signed an agreement to be purchased and taken private by affiliates of Oaktree Capital, a giant Los Angeles alternative investment fund. Oaktree already owns 68 percent of the company’s stock. In ...

Lytx and SmartDrive Systems — fought to convince commercial truck operators that they needed video in the cab to reduce accidents and cut fuel costs. The companies raised a lot of venture capital — $100 million for Lytx, $75 million for SmartDrive — to chase the big, promising market of 20 million trucks in the United States and 80 million worldwide But video turned out to be a tough sell. Some truck drivers resisted being ...

There’s a lot of buzz around 3-D printing these days, but the truth is that most of these machines are too technical for the average consumer to operate. It takes a good deal of software knowledge to set up the machines so they can print objects, one thin layer after another. A small mistake can ruin the entire job. That’s one reason why today’s 3-D printing industry is confined mainly to tech-savvy engineers and hobbyists. ...

Satellite Internet firm ViaSat has teamed up with Boeing to sell a technology platform to operators looking to deliver high-speed Internet service around the globe at less cost. Called the ViaSat Flexible Broadband System, the package taps into technology that the Carlsbad company is deploying in its ViaSat-2 Internet satellite, which is set to launch in 2016. But it offers that technology on a smaller scale, which makes it more affordable. “To a regional operator ...

Sony Electronics plans to focus more on premium-priced TVs, audio and camera products in an effort to turn around its struggling electronics business in North America. At a press event last week, company officials from San Diego-based Sony Electronics — now called Sony North America — laid out a strategy for this year that emphasizes emerging ultra-high-definition 4K televisions and high-resolution audio Walkman devices and speakers. The company also sought to dispel rumors that a ...

Independa, a San Diego maker of remote monitoring technology for seniors and senior-care facilities, said it has raised an additional $3.85 million in an extended second round of venture capital funding. Last fall, the company announced that it had raised $2.25 million in a Series B funding round from City Hill Ventures. On Tuesday, Independa said it had raised additional funds, bringing its total Series B funding to $6.1 million, led by San Diego-based City ...

Bridgepoint Education, the San Diego owner of Ashford University, reported a larger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss because of one-time write-downs and severance charges. The company also gave a modest growth forecast for the coming year, highlighting a flat market for online higher-education companies targeting working adult students. Fourth-quarter revenue was $147 million, down from $162 million for the same quarter the prior year. The company lost $4.85 million, or 12 cents a share, compared with a loss ...

Sony Electronics will phase out most of its 10 remaining retail stores nationwide this year, including two in San Diego, as it pushes ahead with a different retail strategy to help revive its struggling gadget business. The move comes after Sony Corp. recently reorganized its sprawling business units so they had more autonomy and accountability. Sony Electronics, which has been renamed Sony North America, handles sales, marketing, distribution and customer service for the company’s TVs ...

In the next three years, 5 billion connected devices will be shipped that aren’t cellphones. That is one of the highlights that Qualcomm Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf told investors at the San Diego company’s annual shareholder meeting Monday, and it gives him confidence about Qualcomm’s long-term prospects — even if this current year looks like a tough one for growth. On top of cars, medical devices, tablets and other non-phone devices getting connected, the smartphone ...

San Diego  The new owners of the former Sony Online Entertainment video game studio have laid off 140 workers from its San Diego operation. New York investment firm Columbus Nova acquired Sony Online Entertainment — the maker of “EverQuest,” “PlanetSide 2” and other multiplayer online computer games — in early February for an undisclosed price. The studio was renamed Daybreak Game Co. and now operates as an independent game developer. On Feb. 11, Daybreak ...

Fingerprint technology to unlock smartphones or laptops is not new. But Qualcomm has come up with a different way of doing it that offers more security for consumers and more flexibility for phone makers. The San Diego company on Monday unveiled Qualcomm Snapdragon Sense ID 3D Fingerprint Technology, which uses ultrasonic wavelengths to get a more accurate and complete, three-dimensional fingerprint scan. That’s an upgrade from current technology, which uses capacitive sensors to essentially get ...

Commercial drone maker 3D Robotics said Thursday that it has raised $50 million in additional venture capital, led by San Diego’s Qualcomm. Founded by former Wired Magazine editor Chris Anderson and Tijuana’s Jordi Munoz, 3D Robotics makes several varieties of quad-copter-style drones for personal and business uses. The Berkeley-based company has manufacturing and other operations in San Diego and Tijuana. In a blog post, 3D Robotics said it raised this third round of funding to ...